Readers' comments

"That matters because a better gauge of prosperity is not growth in GDP, but growth in GDP per person or average income."

At last!! The Economist, and all economists, should remember this more often. GDP increases arising solely from population growth are generally a bad thing. For most countries, having more people just means more problems.

In those days of Information Society, innovation seems to be an important asset the country has developed. From the nanotechnology to classic pharmacy industry, innovative products has played an essential role in promoting the surplus inside and abroad. The transition from the Old to the New Economy seems to have began early to Germany and that is why the country has "surplised" the world.

Surely one has to look at unemployment over the period and surely ten years conveniently looks good for Germany whereas looking over twenty years for a housing/credit cycle would include the under-performance related to re-unifying Germany and the Mark

In trying to explain Germany's relative success in recent years (see both "Vorsprung durch exports" and "A machine running smoothly") the Economist is overlooking the massive benefits Germany reaps from its undervalued currency. The Euro may provide a reasonable external balance for the Eurozone as a whole, but the countries within this monetary union vary dramatically in their efficiency, price levels, etc. While the Euro is overvalued for many of the "PIIGS," it is clearly undervalued for Germany. This gives Germany a massive price advantage in export markets and is a major factor behind its very large current account surplus, a surplus it enjoys despite mediocre productivity increases in recent years.

Conversely it should be noted that America's large current account deficits during the first decade of this century, while certainly affected by problems related to productivity and educational performance, are largely explained by the serious overvaluation of the US dollar compared to its level in 1992, the last year that the US attained balance in its external accounts.

Vorsprung durch exports. what an economy on words.Tracelling in mainland Europe it has always been evident to me that that their economy has always been holding up better than, that in the US Britain,or Australia

Some europeans do complain. But many fellow travellers,agreewhen they return to
europe that they are on a better wicket, although they do not enbrace the sport of those twenty two gallant men

I'm sorry but your information about the existence of local currencies for each city is wrong. There are some trading-systems that allow their members to live some kind of alternative livestyle interchanging services between members, but it's of course impossible to call this paperpieces a local currency. Germanys only currency is the Euro.

Germany fucked up less than some other countries. "Great".
In the comments:
The biggest fuck up nation which drag everyone down with them keep playing victim. The new meme is, its the Euro which is alegdly undervalued which some makes the German economy grow faster through puff magic.
Neither can a curency devaluation achieve that, nor is the Euro undervalued. On the contrary, The PPP exhcange rate is arround 1.18.